Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1911 — The Name of Old Glory [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Name of Old Glory

From “Home Folks,” by James Whitcomb Riley. Copyright, 1897. Used by special permission of the publishers, tfc- Bobbs-MerriU company.

OLD GLORY, say, who, By the ships and the crew And the lona, blended ranks of the gray and the Wuo — Who gave you, Old Glory, the name that you bear With such pride everywhere As you cast yourself free to the rapturous air And leap out full length, ee we’re wanting you to? Who gave you that name, with the ring of the same And the honor and fame so becoming to you, Your stripes stroked In ripples of white end of red, With your stare at their glittering beet overhead, By day or by night Their delightfulest light Laughing down from their little square heaven of blue? Who gave you the name of Old Glory? Say, who— Who gave you the name of Old Glory? The old banner lifted end, faltering, then In vague lisps and whispers fell silent again. , • * * a * * * • • Old Glory, the etory ws’re wanting to hear Is what the plain facts of your christening were,.For your name, just to hear it, Repeat it and cheer it, ’s a tang to the spirit As salt as a tsar, And, seeing you fly and the boys marching by, There’s a shout in the throat, end a blur In the eye, And an eohing to live for you always—or dial If dying wo still keep you waving on high. And so, by our love For you, floating pfeove, And the scare of all ware and the sorrows thereof, Who gave you the name of Old Glory, and why Are wo thrilled at the name of Old Glory? Then the old banner leaped, Ilka a sail In the blast. And fluttered an audible answer at last. And It apake, with a shake of thr votes, and it said i By the driven enow white and the living blood red Of my bare end their heaven of stare overhead By the symbol conjoined of thorn all, skyward cast, As I float from the steeple, or flap at the mast. Or drpop o’or the sod where the long grasses nod— My nbme Is as old as the glory of God. • * So I came-by the name of Old Glory.